Forever Employable – Jeff Gothelf on The Product Experience

July 1, 2020

4 min read

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The Product Experience

podcaster at mind the product

Join our podcast hosts Lily Smith and Randy Silver for in-depth conversations with some of the best product people around the world! Every week they chat with people in the know, covering the topics that matter to you - solving real problems, developing awesome products, building successful teams and developing careers. Find out more, subscribe, and access all episodes on The Product Experience homepage.

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Working in product is a dream job for lots of people but sustaining a dream career certainly isn’t without challenges. There are problems around burnout, advancement, the challenges of specialisation, and in being a generalist. Jeff Gothelf has been there. He woke up one day and realised that his path forward as a design leader might be a dead end. What he did next, to strike out in a new direction, is the subject of his new book, Forever Employable. It’s a long way from his first book (Lean UX), and his personal retrospective is highly relevant for anyone trying to figure out what they want to do next.

In this episode, sponsored by Amplitude, listen to learn:

How to be forever employable
How everyone is a teacher
About Lean UX v Agile
How to take control of your career

Quote of the Episode

The shipping of the product is the beginning of the conversation with your target audience. It’s not success. Success is somebody watched it, 10 people watched it, 100 people watched it and 10 people told other people to watch it. That type of thing. We’re looking for those outcomes, those behaviour change metrics to tell you that you’ve found traction with your idea, with your audience, and with the channel as well.

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Our Hosts

The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver.

Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Head of Innovation at Go Compare and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol (which now has 800+ members!) and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.

Randy has been working as an interactive producer and product manager across the US and UK for nearly 20 years. A recovering music journalist and editor, he launched Amazon’s music stores in the US and UK, and has worked across sectors including museums and arts groups, online education, media and entertainment, retail and financial services. He’s held Head of Product roles at HSBC and Sainsbury’s, where he also directed their 100+-person product community. Randy’s book, What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19 is out now, with all profits going to COVID-19 relief efforts.

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